The invention relates to apparatus for manipulating portions of rivets, buttons, snap fasteners and like notions in riveting presses and analogous machines. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for changing the orientation of randomly oriented articles prior to attachment of properly oriented articles to complementary articles or to other commodities, for example, to garments.
The visible portions of rivets, snap fasteners, buttons and like notions are often provided with designs which serve to enhance the appearance of the articles and/or are intended to perform useful functions. It is necessary or advisable to attach such articles to complementary articles or to certain commodities in a predetermined orientation in order to enhance the appearance of the commodities and of the properly oriented articles and/or to enable the articles to perform a utilitarian function. For example, a properly oriented hook can be caused to enter and leave a complementary article in the form of an eyelet or the like. Furthermore, if the article to be oriented is provided with a design which includes one or more letters and/or numerals and such article is to be applied to a garment (e.g., to a jacket), the applied articles should normally be oriented in such a way that the letter(s) and/or numeral(s) of their designs should be in proper orientation for reading while the garment is worn by a person.
It is already known to facilitate proper orientation of relatively small articles which can be categorized as notions by providing the articles with indicia (hereinafter called markers) which are detected by a sensor while the respective article is rotated. Reference may be had to published German patent application No. 29 09 45 which discloses a machine wherein a motor serves to rotate a reciprocable ram which, in turn, rotates an article in a holding device for discrete articles by way of a spring which yields when the magnitude of torque exceeds a preselected value. The holding device has two prongs and is non-rotatably mounted in the machine. The marker of the rotating article which is held by the prongs of the holding device strikes a stop of the holding device and then assumes the predetermined angular position for attachment to a complementary article or to a garment. The apparatus which is disclosed in the published German application is not adjustable, i.e., the final angular position of the article in the holding device cannot be altered, and the apparatus is not provided with means for automatically feeding randomly oriented articles from a magazine to the holding device. Moreover, the space requirements of the holding device in the upper tool of the apparatus are such that there is no room for the provision of an adjusting device which would enable the operator to select the final angular position of an article prior to expulsion of the article from the prongs.
As mentioned above, if an article (e.g., a round part of a button, snap fastener or rivet) is provided with a design which is visible when the article is applied to a garment or to another commodity, it is desirable that the design be maintained in a predetermined orientation in order to enhance the utility and/or the appearance of the article. This holds true irrespective of whether the article is round, polygonal or has any other shape (such as that of a hook or eyelet). Heretofore known proposals to apply the articles in proper orientation (as far as the designs at their exposed surfaces are concerned) involved a time-consuming manipulation of the complementary articles and/or commodities to which the articles bearing a design are to be affixed. For example, if such articles are to be applied to garments, it is necessary to manipulate the garment until it assumes a position which ensures that the applied article is in proper orientation for observation of its design when the garment is worn. This not only takes up much time but also necessitates extensive training of operators of machines, such as riveting presses, which are used for the application of articles to garments. In addition, an operator must be on the alert at all times because each and every positioning of a garment on its support must be carried out with utmost care in order to ensure proper orientation of the design on each applied article. An alternative solution involved the application of first discrete articles to first selected portions of a series of successive garments, thereupon the application of second discrete articles to second selected portions of the same series of successive garments, and so forth. In other words, each and every garment which is to be provided with two or more articles must be repeatedly inserted into and removed from the machine. The reason is that the application of articles in the form of buttons which carry designs in the form of letters or the like is not uniform, i.e., the orientation of buttons on the sleeves is different from that on the flaps of pockets or on the front sides of jackets, blouses and similar garments. Therefore, many garments are simply provided with buttons which are without any visible designs or carry less desirable designs the orientation of which is immaterial.